Computer program product

ABSTRACT

An object of the present invention is to propose image processing technology whereby even a player with a low skill level can enjoy a shooting game with more, excitement. To achieve this object. according to the present invention; if a player outputs a slow regeneration request signal when processing transits to the status where an enemy-character is about to fire a bullet, the enemy-character and the bullet fired by the enemy-character are regenerated slowly. By this, the player can aim at the bullet with extra time.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/682,418, filed Oct. 10, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,837,552, whichclaims priority to Japanese Application No. 2002-299521, filed Oct. 11,2002, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated herein byreference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to image processing technology suitablefor shooting games.

2. Description of the Related Art

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-86038 discloses imageprocessing technology for shooting games using computer graphics. Insuch shooting games, while a status of a player-character which theplayer operates, and an enemy-character, which is the target of theshooting of the player who shoot at each other are displayed as an imageviewed from a:predetermined viewpoint on a screen, a shooting game isperformed, but in image processing, if the shooting input is detected ina status where the shooting target and the coordinates of the aimingposition match in a frame the image of the shooting target being shot atis written in the frame memory, and this is converted into video signalsand displayed as an image in the next frame, so the status of the bulletflying is not displayed on the screen, only the flying locus of thebullet is temporarily displayed.

In the above image processing, however, the flying time of the bullet isvirtually so if the player-character is fired at by an enemy character,the player-character is always shot at and cannot avoid the bullet aslong as the player-character and the aim match. Particularly in the caseof a beginner whose skill level is not high, the game ends in a shorttime, so improvements that players do not become bored are necessary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With the foregoing in view, it is an object of the present invention toprovide an image processing technology suitable for shooting games.

To solve the above problem, the computer program product of the presentinvention is a computer program product where a player-character, whovirtually fires bullets responding to the input operation of a player,and an enemy-character, who is computer-controlled to virtually firebullets at the player-character, are disposed in a virtual space, and acomputer program for causing a computer system to execute processing fordisplaying a status in the virtual space viewed from a virtual viewpointon a screen is recorded in a computer-readable recording medium, whereinthe computer program causes this computer system to determine whether avisual effects request for requesting visual effects processing wasinput by a player, and if the visual effects request was input, thecomputer program causes the computer system to execute image displayprocessing with visual effects such that the display speed of at leastthe enemy-character and each one of the bullets fired from theenemy-character becomes slower than the display speed of the objectdisplayed in association with the player operation, causes the computersystem to determine whether at least one of the enemy-characters to bethe shooting target and the bullet fired from the enemy-character willcollide with the moving locus of the bullet fired from theplayer-character, and if the shooting target will collide with themoving locus of the bullet fired from the player-character, the computerprogram causes the computer system to display the image of the shootingtarget being shot at on the screen, and displays the progress amount ofthe remaining time when image display processing with visual effects canbe executed on the screen.

According to the present invention, the player voluntarily requestsvisual effects processing on the condition that the enemy-charactertransits to bullet firing wait status, then the enemy-character and thebullet fired from this enemy character are slowly regenerated, thereforethe player can shoot aiming at the enemy character or at this bulletwith extra time, which makes a shooting game more exciting.

In the computer program product-of the present invention, the computerprogram causes the computer system to determine whether processingtransits to bullet fire wait status where a bullet is fired from theenemy-character to the player-character at least within a predeterminedtime, and if processing transits to the bullet fire wait status, thecomputer program causes the computer system to determine whether aplayer input the visual effects request

In the computer program product of the present invention, the computerprogram causes the computer system to measure the elapsed time amount atwhich image display processing with visual effects is not executed; andincrease the remaining time according to the elapsed time amount. Bythis, time when the visual effects processing can be executed can beincreased, so a shooting game can be more exciting.

In the computer program product of the present invention, the computerprogram causes the computer system to determine whether the mode is amode where two or more players play, and update the remaining time sothat the increasing amount of remaining time, when it is determined thatthe mode is a mode where two or more players play, becomes differentfrom the increasing amount of remaining time in a mode where one playerplays. By this, time when the visual effects processing can be executedcan be adjusted according to the play mode, so a shooting game can bemore exciting.

In the computer program product of the present invention, the computerprogram causes the computer system to determine whether the imagedisplay processing with visual effects is being executed, and ifdetermined that the image display processing with visual effects isbeing executed, the computer program causes the computer system toexecute image effects processing for changing the display mode visuallybefore end after the image display processing with visual effects isexecuted for at least the enemy-character. By executing the imageeffects processing so that the display mode of the enemy-character ischanged before and after the visual effects processing, a shooting gamecan be more exciting.

It is preferable that the visual effects request input is a controlsignal which is output to the computer system when a foot pedal,connected to the computer system, is stepped on by a player. In ashooting game, manual input is normally used, but by controlling inputusing the foot, a player can focus only on manual input for shooting.

For the computer readable recording-medium, an optical recording mediuman optical recording media where data can be optically read, such asCD-RAM, CD-ROM, OVDRAM, DVO-ROM, OVD-R, PO disk, MD disk and MO disk), amagnetic recording medium (a recording medium where data can bemagnetically read, such as a flexible disk, magnetic card and magnetictape), or a portable recording medium, such as a memory cartridgecomprising a memory element (a semiconductor memory element such asDRAM, a ferroelectric memory element such as FRAM), are preferable.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting the hardware of a game machineaccording to the present embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a diagram depicting the moving vector of an object;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting the procedure of visual effectsprocessing of the present embodiment; table;

FIG. 4 is a table showing the registration content of a time scaleconversion

FIG. 5 is a diagram depicting the-game screen in a-shooting game; and

FIG. 6 is a diagram depicting the game screen in a shooting game.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be describedwith reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting the hardware of a game machineaccording to the present embodiment As FIG. 1 shows, to the game-machine10, gun type controllers 20 and 21 and foot pedals 22 and 23 as theinput means for the player to control the game, a video monitor (CRTdisplay) 24 as the image display means for displaying the game, and aspeaker 25 as the sound output means for outputting sound effects, areconnected respectively. The gun type controller 20 and the foot pedal 22are the means for player A to control input, and the gun type controller21 and the foot pedal 23 are the means for player B to control input. Inother words, in a same virtual space, two players can execute a shootinggame simultaneously. The present embodiment shows the systemconfiguration for two players as an example, but the system is notlimited to this, but is designed such that a plurality of players canplay by adding gun type controllers.

Gun type controllers 20 and 21 are controllers which have such anappearance as a machine gun, pistol, rifle and shot gun, and comprisetrigger switches 208 and 21 a for the player to instruct firing bullets,and infrared emitters 20 b and 21 b for emitting infrared radially. Bythe input operation of the trigger switches 20 a and 21 a, infrared isemitted from the infrared emitters 20 b and 21 b to the video monitor24. On the video monitor 24, a plurality of light receiving sensors 24 aare disposed surrounding the frame of the screen 24 b, and the sensoroutput of the light receiving sensor 24 a is written to the input/outputinterface 11. The input signals (trigger control signals) of the triggerswitches 20 a and 21 a by the player are output to the input/outputinterface 11 in the game machine 10. Foot pedals 22 and 23, on the otherhand, are input means for the player to execute foot input for the mainCPU 12 to execute the later mentioned visual effects processing, and ifit is detected that foot pedals are pressed down with a predeterminedstepping amount, a foot input signal is output to the input/outputinterface 11. The visual effects processing will be described in detaillater.

The game machine 10 is—comprised of an—input/output—interface 1-1; mainCPU 12, ROM 13, work RAM 14, video processor 15, frame memory 16, D/Aconverter 17, sound processor 18 and sound memory 19. The input/outputinterface 11 determines the aiming position of the player, the presenceof a fired bullet, and the number of fired bullets from the sensoroutput signals and the trigger control signals of the light receivingsensor 24 a, and writes the corresponding flag to a predeterminedaddress in the work RAM 14. The work RAM 14 is a random access memorywhich functions as a work area for the main CPU 12 to execute variousoperations for game processing. In the ROM 13, a game program 13 a,polygon data 13 b, geographic data 13 c and time scale conversion table13 d are stored respectively. When the system is started up, the gameprogram 13 a, loaded in the work RAM 14, is command-interpreted andexecuted by the main CPU 12, and game processing is executed.

The polygon data 13 b is a data group of the relative coordinates or theabsolute coordinates of each vertex of a plurality of polygonsconstituting various objects (e.g. characters and game backgrounds) tobe displayed on the game screen. The geographic data 13 c, where avirtual viewpoint moves in the virtual space according to developmentsof the game, is a data group of relative coordinates or absolutecoordinates of e8ch vertex of polygons, which have relatively roughsettings, required for displaying a desired game screen. The time scaleconversion table 13 d is a table where the values of the time scale ofall the objects displayed on the game screen are stored, and are setsuch that the time scale of a predetermined object is changed at thelater mentioned visual effects processing. Here the time scale is amultiplication coefficient of a moving vector (or moving amount) of anobject in one frame unit, and is normally set to 1.0.

For determining the contact of the aiming and the shooting target, it isdetermined which position on the two-dimensional coordinates that aplayer is aiming at by the sensor output signal of the light receivingsensor 24 a, then the two-dimensional coordinates are converted intothree-dimensional coordinates, and a bullet is virtually fired in thedepth direction. If the later mentioned visual effects processing is notexecuted, the image of the target being shot at is displayed at theaiming position, and the status of the bullet flying is not displayed,but if the visual effects processing is executed, the status of thebullet flying is written in the frame memory 16 for several frames, andthe flying bullet is displayed on the video monitor 24 for apredetermined time.

In the above description, a light receiving sensor 24 a is disposed onthe video monitor 24, and the aiming position of a player is judged fromthe output signal of this sensor, but the present invention is notlimited to this, and it is acceptable that a plurality of infrared lightemitting elements, instead of the light receiving sensor 24 a, aredisposed on the video monitor 24, lights emitted from the light emittingelements are detected by the light receiving sensor disposed in a guntype controller, and the aiming position of the player is determinedaccording to the received light intensity from each infrared lightemitting element.

FIG. 2 is a diagram depicting the moving vector of an object. In FIG. 2,if it is assumed that the position vector of an object at the nth frameis pos, the position vector of an object at the (n+1) the frame isnext_pos, and the moving vector of an object is spd*time_ratio, thennext_pos=pos+spe′*time_ratio is established. Here spd is a moving speed(moving amount for each frame) of an object, and time_ratio is a timescale. When the visual effects processing, such as slow regeneration, isexecuted, the moving speed of the object can be set to 1/n of normalspeed by changing the time scale from 1.0 to 1/n (h:n). In the timescale conversion table 13 d, an object for which the time scale ischanged when the visual effects processing, such as slow regeneration,is executed and the corresponding time scale of the object before andafter time scale conversion, are stored in advance.

FIG. 4 shows the content of the data registered in the time scaleconversion table 13 d, where the time scale of an enemy-character andthe bullet fired by this enemy-character are registered respectively.Here the time scale before conversion is 1.0 and the time scale afterconversion is 1/n.

The main CPU 12 reads the polygon data 13 b, geographic data 13 c andtime scale conversion table 13 d based on the game program 13 a,determines the coordinate value of each object in the world coordinatesystem based on the control signal from such input means as the gun typecontrollers 20 and 21, and converts this coordinate value into thevisual field coordinate system in a conversion matrix. The videoprocessor 15 pastes texture to the object converted into the visualcoordinate system, and writes the drawing data to be displayed in the(n−1)th frame in the frame. memory 16, and also reads the drawing datato be displayed in the nth frame from the frame memory 16 by doublebuffering, performs D/A conversion by the D/A converter 17, and displaysthe computer graphics image on the video monitor 24. The sound processor18, on the other hand, writes digital sound data to the sound memory 19so as to output sound corresponding to the game scene, and reads this,performs D/A conversion, and outputs such sound as sound effects via thespeaker 25.

FIG. 5 shows a screen example in the shooting game, In FIGS. 5, 31 a, 31b and 31 c are enemy-characters, 32 a, 32 b and 32 c are lock oncursors, 33 is the slow gauge, 34 is the remaining number of bulletsthat a player can fire, 35 is an icon to display weapons that can beselected, and 36 is the score that a player amassed. In the virtualspace, a player character operated by the player is disposed in additionto the enemy-characters 31 a, 31 b and 31 c shown in FIG. 5, and animage viewed from a predetermined—virtual—viewpoint-is-displayed‘on-the-video-monitor:24 as a game—screen, In this case, the virtualviewpoint is set near the head of the player-character, and an imageviewed from the viewpoint of the player-character (subjective viewpoint)is displayed, but the image is not limited to this, and an image viewedfrom an objective viewpoint, where both the player-character and theenemy-characters 31 a, 31 b and 31 c are displayed on the game screen,may be displayed (this is the same for the later mentioned descriptionin FIG. 6). In this case, as FIG. 5 shows, an image viewed from thesubjective viewpoint of the player-character is displayed,

The enemy-characters 31 a, 31 b and 31 c are programmed so as to firebullets at the player-character according to a predetermined attackpattern based on computer control. Each one of the lock on cursors 32 a,32 b and 32 c is a cursor which moves tracking each enemy-character 31a, 31 b and 31 c respectively, and the firing of a bullet from an enemycharacter 31 a, 31 b or 31 c is shown to the player by changing thecolor from green (indicated by a dotted line) to red (indicated by asolid line). The present invention can be applied even if the lock oncursors 328, 32 b and 32 c are not displayed. The slow gauge 33 will bedescribed in detail later. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the lock oncursor 32 a which is locked to the enemy-character 31 a is displayed ingreen, but the lock on cursors 32 b and 32 c locked to the enemycharacters 31 b and 31 c are displayed-in red. If the enemy characters31 b and 31 c fire bullets here, and if the aim matches with thecoordinates of the player-character, the player is instantaneously shotand damaged, without any time to avoid the bullet. This is because ithas been programmed such that the image of the player-character beingshot is displayed in a frame next to the frame where the enemycharacters 31 b and 31 c fired the bullets.

Therefore in the present invention, the visual effects processing isperformed on the game screen under predetermined conditions (hereaftercalled visual effects processing-enable-conditions”) to provide theplayer extra time to avoid a bullet. The visual effects processingenable conditions are conditions to be prerequisites to perform thevisual effects processing on the game screen, and, for example, theseconditions are met when the status transits to the status where anattack from the enemy-character 31 starts, that is when the statustransits to the bullet firing wait status, such as when the green colorof the lock on cursor 32 changes to red. The main CPU 12 sets the visualeffects processing enable flag to u1 G in the work RAM 14 when thevisual effects processing enable conditions are established (when thestatus transits to the bullet firing wait status). The visual effectsprocessing is when, for example, when slow regeneration processing isperformed only for the enemy-character 31 and the bullet by changing thetime scale of the enemy-character 31 and the bullet fired by theenemy-character 31 to 1/n. By such visual effects processing, theoperation speed of the player-character can be virtually quickened. Inother words, the moving speed of the enemy-character and the bulletthereof become 1/n that of the player-character, so the player can avoidthe bullet with sufficient extra time, and also the player can blast thebullet by aiming at this bullet. For the value of n, n=10 for example ispreferable.

FIG. 6 shows a screen example of s shooting game when the visual effectsprocessing of the present embodiment is performed. Identical referencenumerals as FIG. 5 indicate identical composing elements for whichdetailed explanations are omitted. When the lock on cursors 32 b and 32c, locking the enemy characters 31 b and 31 c, turn from green to red,the visual effects processing enable conditions are established. Thenshortly after this, the bullets 40 a and 40 b are fired from theenemy-characters 31 b and 31 c. If the player inputs a visual effectsrequest when the visual effects processing enable conditions areestablished, the main CPU 12 generates a game screen where the visualeffects processing is performed, so the player performs the desiredprocessing such as changing of the time scale. For the visual effectsrequest input, a control signal, when the player inputs by stepping onthe foot pedals 22 and 23, for example, is preferable. This foot controlsignal is output to the input/output interface 11 and is detected by themain CPU 12. However the visual effects request is not limited to footpedals, but may be the input control of a switch for a visual effectsrequest input, which is disposed on the gun type controllers 20 and 21.Also the visual effects request may be the input control of a switch forslow regeneration, which is disposed on the body of the game machine 10,without using the gun type controller. When the visual effects requestinput from the player is detected, the main CPU 12 converts the timescale for a predetermined object (the enemy-character 31 and bullet 40in this case), and performs slow regeneration processing.

Then the bullets 40 a and 40 b, which have not been visually displayed,are displayed on the game screen in slow regeneration. In this case,many lines 60, which are like after images extending from the edge ofthe screen to an area roughly at the center, are displayed, which isimage effects processing as if the player-character were virtuallymoving at high-speed. By this, the player can experience thesensation-as if they were moving at high speed, and can avoid thebullets 40 a and 40 b with the extra time, since the moving speed of theenemy-characters 31 b and 31 c and the bullets 40 a and 40 b is slow,and the player also can blast the bullets 40 a and 40 b by adjusting theorientation of the gun type controllers 20 and 21, pulling the triggerswitches 20 a and 21 a with aligning the aiming cursors SOa and SOb atthe bullets 40 a and 40 b. Here the aiming cursor 50 a is an aimingcursor of the player A, and the aiming cursor 50 b is the aiming cursorof the player B. The blast processing of the bullet 40 by the aimingcursors 50 a and 50 b can be performed with a normal operation:time. Inother words, the-time from the player executing the bullet firingoperation to the bullet reaching the shooting target, the time from theplayer selecting a weapon displayed at the icon 35 to the weapon beingdisplayed on the screen in response to the selection, and the displayspeed of an object related to player operation, such as the moving timeof the aiming cursors SOa and SOb, are based on the normal display speedbefore the visual effects processing is executed. The slow gauge 33 isfor indicating the progress of time when slow regeneration processing,as the visual effects processing, can be executed, which is designedsuch that the value of the gauge decreases as the time for executing thevisual effects processing elapses, and the visual effects processingcannot be executed as game processing if this value becomes 0. As FIG. 6shows, the display of the slow gauge 33 is enlarged on screen whilevisual effects processing is being executed, where the remaining time,when the visual effects processing can be executed, is indicated for theplayer.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting the procedure of the visual effectsprocessing executed by the main CPU 12. At first, the main CPU 12monitors the work RAM 14 and checks whether “1” is set at the visualeffects processing enable flag (step S1). If it is detected that “1” isset at the visual effects processing enable flag (step 81: YES), themain CPU 12 checks whether the foot pedals 22 and 23 are stepped on, andthe foot input signal is detected (step S2). If the stamp input signalis detected (step S2: YES), the main CPU 12 changes the time scale of apredetermined character (enemy-character 31 and bullet 40 in this case)to 1/n (step S3), and executes the visual effects processing based onslow regeneration (step S4). And if the time, when the visual effectsprocessing can be executed in a status where the foot pedals 22 and 23are stepped on, has elapsed (step S5: YES), the main CPU 12 returns thetime scale of the above mentioned predetermined character to theoriginal value (that is, time_ratio=1.0) (step S6), and sets the visualeffects processing enable flag to “0” (step S7); This may be constructedsuch that the time scale of the above mentioned predetermined characteris returned to the original value in the stage when the player releasestheir foot from the foot pedals 22 and 23, regardless the processing instep S5.

While the visual effects processing is performed, slow regenerationprocessing is executed only for the objects related to theenemy-character 31, and the speed of the player-character and theobjects related to the operation of the player-character, such as thespeed of the value of the slow gauge 33 decreasing, the speed of theremaining number of bullets 34 decreasing, the speed of the display modeof the icon 35, and the speed of the increasing/decreasing speed of thenumber of points of the acquired score 36, are at normal speed, forwhich it is programmed such that slow regeneration processing cannot beexecuted. In the above description, the moving speed of theenemy-character 31 and the bullet 40 fired by this enemy-character 31are set to 1/n, and the moving speed of the objects related to theplayer's operation is maintained at 1.0, but the present invention isnot limited to this, and it may be constructed such that the movingspeed of the enemy-character 31 and the bullet 40 fired by theenemy-character 31 is set to 1/n, and the moving speed of the objectsrelated to the player's operation are set to 11 m using n and m whichrelationship is n>-m->1. In other words, the-objects-related-to theplayer operation is also displayed somewhat slower, but the moving speedof the enemy-character 31 and the bullet 40 is regenerated slower thanthis.

When the duration of the visual effects processing exceeds apredetermined value, the value of the slow gauge 33 becomes 0, andvisual effects processing can no longer be executed, but it may beconstructed such that the value of the slow gauge 33 is increasedaccording to the duration in normal operation status, where the visualeffects processing is not performed. In this case, it can be programmedsuch that the maximum value of the slow gauge: 33 is, 6000 points (10seconds if converted into time), and after a predetermined time (e.g. 2seconds) has elapsed since the value of the slow gauge 33 becomes 0, thevalue of the slow gauge 33 is increased at every 2 paints for 5 frames.If constructed in this way, the value of the slow gauge 33 recovers, sothe player can use the visual effects processing again. In the case ofthe two player play mode, the recovery points of the slow gauge 33 maybe set to be different from the recovery points of the one player playmode. It also may be constructed such that for the recovery processingof the slow gauge 33, a predetermined number of points (e.g. 4 points)are recovered if a bullet is fired at the enemy-character 31, apredetermined number of points (e.g. 8 points) are recovered if theenemy-character 31 is shot, a predetermined number of points (e.g. 1200points) are recovered if a vital point of the enemy-character 31 isshot, and a predetermined number of paints (e.g. 20 points) arerecovered if the enemy-character 31 is hit continuously two or moretimes. In this way, according to the present embodiment, only theenemy-character 31 and the bullet 40 are slow-regenerated by the playerstepping on the foot pedals 22 and 23 when the visual effects processingenable conditions are established, so even a player whose game controlis-not very good can avoid the-bullet 40, which allows implementing ashooting game that is not boring. If the player has an advanced skilllevel, the bullet 40 can be aimed at and blasted while the bullet 40fired from the enemy-character 31 is slow-regenerated, so a moreexciting shooting game can be provided. In the present embodiment, anexample when the player-character and the enemy-character fight eachother was shown, but the present invention is not limited to this, butcan be applied, for example, to a shooting game where an objectsimulating a fighter aircraft or a combat vehicle are operated.

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or morecomputer programs, for causing a computer system to execute processingfor determining whether or not flying objects that are virtuallyreleased in response to an input operation of a player collide with anenemy-character that is computer-controlled, and processing fordisplaying the enemy-character in a virtual space viewed from a virtualviewpoint on a screen, the one or more computer programs causing thecomputer system to execute steps comprising: (a) determining whether ornot a visual effect request for requesting visual effect processing isinput by a player; (b) changing a moving speed of the enemy-characterand/or a moving speed of the flying objects released from theenemy-character when the visual effect request is input, wherein themoving speed slows down regardless of whether the flying objects hit theenemy-character as a target; (c) displaying circumstances in the virtualspace viewed from the virtual viewpoint on the screen based on thechanged moving speed so that the moving speed of the player-characterappears relatively faster than the moving speed of the enemy-characterand/or the moving speed of the flying objects released from theenemy-character; (d) determining whether or not virtual attacks by aweapon selected by the player in response to an input operation of theplayer collide with the enemy-character or collide with flying objectsthat are virtually released from the enemy-character; (e) displaying animage of the target being damaged on the screen when the virtual attacksby the weapon selected by the player collide with the target; (f)displaying a remaining time for the computer system to execute thechanging of the moving speed on the screen; (g) decreasing the remainingtime in proportion to an elapsed time in which the computer systemexecutes the changing of the moving speed; (h) determining whether ornot the remaining time is over; (i) terminating the changing the movingspeed when the remaining time is over; and (j) restoring the movingspeed to a normal value when the changing of the moving speed is over.2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according toclaim 1, the one or more computer programs causing the computer systemto execute steps further comprising: (k) measuring an elapsed time inwhich the computer system does not execute the changing of the movingspeed; and (l) increasing the remaining time in proportion to an elapsedtime in which the computer system does not execute the changing of themoving speed.
 3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumaccording to claim 1, the one or more computer programs causing thecomputer system to execute steps further comprising: increasing theremaining time when virtual attacks by the weapon selected by the playerin response to an input operation of the player collide with at least apart of the enemy-character.
 4. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium according to claim 2 or 3, the one or more computerprograms causing the computer system to execute steps furthercomprising: determining whether or not a plurality of virtual attacks bythe weapon selected by the player in response to input operations of theplayer collide continuously with at least either the enemy-character orflying objects that are virtually released from the enemy-character;increasing the remaining time so that the increasing amount of theremaining time, when the plurality of virtual attacks by the weaponselected by the player in response to the input operations of the playercollide continuously with at least either the enemy-character or flyingobjects that are virtually released from the enemy-character, becomesbigger than the increasing amount of the remaining time when theplurality of virtual attacks in response to the input operations of theplayer do not collide continuously.
 5. A method for determining whetheror not flying objects that are virtually released in response to aninput operation of a player collide with an enemy-character that iscomputer-controlled via a processor, and processing for displaying theenemy-character in a virtual space viewed from a virtual viewpoint on ascreen, comprising: (a) determining, by the processor, whether or not avisual effect request for requesting visual effect processing is inputby a player; (b) changing, by the processor, a moving speed of theenemy-character and/or a moving speed of the flying objects releasedfrom the enemy-character when the visual effect request is input,wherein the moving speed slows down regardless of whether the flyingobjects hit the enemy-character as a target; (c) displaying, by theprocessor, circumstances in the virtual space viewed from the virtualviewpoint on the screen based on the changed moving speed so that themoving speed of the player-character appears relatively faster than themoving speed of the enemy-character and/or the moving speed of theflying objects released from the enemy-character; (d) determining, bythe processor, whether or not virtual attacks by a weapon selected bythe player in response to an input operation of the player collide withthe enemy-character or collide with flying objects that are virtuallyreleased from the enemy-character; (e) displaying, by the processor, animage of the target being damaged on the screen when the virtual attacksby the weapon selected by the player collide with the target; (f)displaying, by the processor, a remaining time for the computer systemto execute the changing of the moving speed on the screen; (g)decreasing, by the processor, the remaining time in proportion to anelapsed time in which the computer system executes the changing of themoving speed; (h) determining, by the processor, whether or not theremaining time is over; (i) terminating, by the processor, the changingthe moving speed when the remaining time is over; and (j) restoring, bythe processor, the moving speed to a normal value when the changing ofthe moving speed is over.
 6. The method according to claim 5, furthercomprising: (k) measuring an elapsed time in which the computer systemdoes not execute the changing of the moving speed; and (l) increasingthe remaining time in proportion to an elapsed time in which thecomputer system does not execute the changing of the moving speed. 7.The method according to claim 5, further comprising: increasing theremaining time when virtual attacks by the weapon selected by the playerin response to an input operation of the player collide with at least apart of the enemy-character.
 8. The method according to claim 6 or 7,further comprising: determining whether or not a plurality of virtualattacks by the weapon selected by the player in response to inputoperations of the player collide continuously with at least either theenemy-character or flying objects that are virtually released from theenemy-character; increasing the remaining time so that the increasingamount of the remaining time, when the plurality of virtual attacks bythe weapon selected by the player in response to the input operations ofthe player collide continuously with at least either the enemy-characteror flying objects that are virtually released from the enemy-character,becomes bigger than the increasing amount of the remaining time when theplurality of virtual attacks in response to the input operations of theplayer do not collide continuously.